Avoiding clash in faisalabad: Police whitewash Quranic verses from Ahmadi graves
On the demand of a banned outfit, Quranic verses and religious texts were forcibly removed from tablets on Ahmadi graves on Friday night in a cemetery in Mangat Ucha village, around seven kilometres from Hafizabad.
Around 650 Ahmadis reside in the village, mostly from pre-partition days. Before Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims in 1974, their community as well members outside the community used to bury their dead in this graveyard without any discrimination on the basis of faith. Thereafter, the graveyard was divided into two parts for burial on the basis of faith.
Earlier this week, however, an application was moved to the Kassoki police station in the area, which claimed that villagers were against the use of Quranic verses and religious texts on grave tablets.
“This action by Ahmadis creates religious anarchy, undermines faith and also aggravates emotions. Ahmadis cannot use Quranic verses as per Muslim faith,” the application stated.
The application further demanded that police remove all such tablets in order to prevent a clash between the Ahmadi community and others.
The Hafizabad DPO then asked Kassoki police station SHO Aslam Kharal to take ‘appropriate steps’ in order to avoid any untoward incident. The SHO summoned elders and notables of the Ahmadiyya Jamaat in the village, who met him under the supervision of the acting Ameer of the Hafizabad Ahmadiyya Jamaat, Nasir Javaid.
Kharal, according to Javaid, asked the community to remove the Quranic verses and also made it clear that if they did not do so, the police itself would take measures to remove them to ‘in order to maintain peace’ in the area.
“I frankly told the Kassoki SHO during the meeting that we do not believe as per our faith to commit blasphemy or desecrate Quranic verses and we will not remove the tablets inscribed with Quranic verses ... We also told the police that if any civilian or villager or religious leader made an attempt to remove the tablets from our graves, we will resist with full force come what may,” Nasir said.
He added that eventually, on Friday, a police party headed by Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Muhammad Akram entered the graveyard and whitewashed all tablets with Quranic verses on them.
When contacted, Kharal admitted, “The Quranic verses were whitewashed by the police under the supervision of the ASI without any resistance and no one from either side was allowed to join this operation.”
“The entire exercise was conducted to save the locality from a clash and we achieved this target without any resistance,” the SHO said, adding that this was a ‘positive achievement’ for the police.
DSP Tariq Warraich also justified the police action, saying, “It is part of police duty to resolve all issues which may lead to a clash on a sensitive issue.”
On the other hand, Secretary Amoor-e-Aama, Ahmadiyya Jamaat Faisalabad, Syed Mahmood Ahmad Shah, criticised the ‘defiling’ of the graves.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2012.
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The queation in mind is - How many of the people can recite the HOLY QURAN of by heart? How many of the same people understand (read and write) in ARABIC ?
Blasphemy,, Blasphemy. Who ever defaced those graves should be charged with BLASPHEMY.
Assalamu alaikum.
I believe Al-Quran is the guidence for whole mankind, Why ahmadies will not be allowed to be benefited from it? Hazrat Muhammad (SA) never said non-muslims are not allowed to read quran or use quranic verses; Do the mullas have the sole-right of Al-Quran or Allah?
I dont why I see that all the problem was initiated with Ahmedis trying testing the Muslim's temper by doing the stuff they are strictly guided not to , by the Pakistani Law ! sad .....
dont they (police) have any other work ?
Ahmadis aren't Muslims. They can say whatever they like. They reject the fact that Muhammad was the last messenger of God. That makes them non Muslim by any definition of the major Islamic sects. They can't use Quranic texts.
CM punjab and his brothere should know that by persicuting weeks,they can please baned mullahs but surely not Allah.May people should pray for anothre Mushariff.
What next would the members of banned outfit settle for now? THe SHO should have had the courage to tell the goons to leave the dead alone!
Sad or shock is what we used to express to react to such incidents but now we feel at loss for much more sad or shocking words for a society which is rapidly moving away from civility or for that matter any sense of civilization! May Allah have mercy on this land and its people! Aameen
Is the Police not committing blasphemy by erasing Quranic text form the Ahmadi graves' headstones? or is it O.K. for the so called muslims to deface Quranic text but not for chrtians even unwittingly? Would Muslims tolerate if Non-Mulims, say, in India, erased identical text from a Muslim grave stone!
Ahmedis are confimimg that "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger. From Allah we come and to Him we return". Does anyone have a copy right on these words?
Well done pakistan - Listen to banned groups rather then ordinary citizens that have done no wrong. Pakistani police should have arrested the banned group - however in Pakistan everything is upside down . It is because of reasons like this that india is an economic superpower and Pakistan is the laughing stock of the civilised world
Martin Niemöller once said:
“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
In no distant future they will come after me and I will have no one to defend me because all the persecuted people would have left this country. Pakistan's loss is someone's gain.
So these people used to be in peace before partition.. And after 1974.. :( Bhutto Saab, rest in peace..
Tussle between Muslim and Ahmedi clergy is for complete hegemony in Pakistan and lives of ordinary Ahmedies have seriously been endangered.
Only rich and influential Ahmedies can escape to Europe , Australia and North America. One thing is clear that poor Ahmedies have no future or respect in Pakistan.